|
Theory
|
Pamphlet: What We Stand For
Latest International NewsSocialist Appeal Fighting Fund appeal 2010
Unison GS election: Support Paul HolmesLatest news on the campaign for Paul Holmes to be the Left candidate for the unison GS election
London Demo: April 10th Latest British NewsNew Book - 'Reformism or Revolution' - now available
Latest Trade Union NewsMarxist International Review
School Students' Union
Wellred featured booksIn Defence Of MarxismLeon Trotsky's classic work "In Defence Of Marxism" Now available from Wellred at a special price
The Communist Manifesto
Send us reports!Send us your letters, articles or workplace and trade union reports! Please get in touch and wherever possible we will publish submitted items on our website or in our monthly paper Socialist Appeal. E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Post: PO Box 50525, Poplar, London, E14 6WG, United Kingdom.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
After the reforms of the 1945-51 Labour government, Ted Grant considers the question as to whether capitalism had changed fundamentally. The publication of the New Fabian Essays in 1952 gave him the opportunity to take up the thinking of the Labour leadership.
Engels' pamphlet, The Part Played
by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man, written in 1876, but not
published until 20 years later, contained many brilliant insights into the
theory of human development. Against a background of very scarce fossil or
other evidence, his application of the method of dialectical materialism to the
problem allowed him to provide a consistent and coherent explanation of human
development well in advance of the majority of his scientific contemporaries;
an explanation that remains to this day the main pivot of any Marxist view of
human development.
The
events of the past year or so, financial meltdown, political instability,
uncertainty over jobs and the threat that many workers could lose their homes
represents a huge shift in society, both internationally and especially in
Britain where the effects of the “credit crunch” have been particularly acute.
In the context of such a deep crisis the halcyon days of the “feel good factor”
and the “15 years of unbroken economic growth”, seem like ancient history.
For over a century Marxists have argued the need to take the banks and
other financial institutions into public ownership as part of the
socialist transformation of society. The founding document of
scientific socialism, the 'Communist Manifesto', in 1848 called for,
"Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a
national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly."
Together with the same author’s
‘Materialist conception of history’ this is a brilliant introduction to
historical materialism. Clearly there are limits to the ‘what if’ way of
looking at historical processes, but the reader will no doubt find Plekhanov’s
conclusion that even such over-arching figures as Napoleon or Robespierre did
not fundamentally change the broad course of historical development compelling.
After all Plekhanov is defending the basic materialist conception of history,
i.e. that progress is determined by material forces that manifest themselves in
the activities of millions of people. He explains it well. In doing so he is
illuminating the interplay of accident and necessity in history.
Production
is carried on for profit, not for use. There is no provision that all those
able and willing to work will always be in a position to find employment; an
“army of unemployed” almost always exists. The worker is constantly in fear of
losing his job. Since unemployed and poorly paid workers do not provide a
profitable market, the production of consumers' goods is restricted, and great
hardship is the consequence. Technological progress frequently results in more
unemployment rather than in an easing of the burden of work for all. The profit
motive, in conjunction with competition among capitalists, is responsible for
an instability in the accumulation and utilization of capital which leads to
increasingly severe depressions. Unlimited competition leads to a huge waste of
labor, and to that crippling of the social consciousness of individuals which I
mentioned before.
William Morris is probably known best today as a designer of wallpaper
and fabrics. This is a travesty. Morris was a revolutionary socialist,
a Marxist. Morris read Capital when it was only published in German,
and therefore unavailable to most British workers. Inspired, he joined the Democratic Federation, later called the
Social Democratic Federation, the first British Marxist organisation.
From that time on he was a tireless agitator for socialism till his
last days.
In any historical period, the dominant ideas are those of the ruling
class. In 1989 the world was treated to the words of Francis Fukuyama,
who published an essay with the title 'The end of history?' His
argument was not that historical events had literally stopped happening
but that the collapse of so-called 'communism' in the Soviet union
meant that western liberal democracy had successfully established
itself as the ultimate and ideal form of government. Marxism lay totally discredited he declared, gloatingly.
Click here to make an online donation to Socialist Appeal
